Made by morel

A Brief Argument on Behalf of the Census

The census is in trouble - Congress has slowly been starving it of funds. The Center for American Progress reached out and wanted a way to celebrate it, remind people of it's value and deep roots in American history.

Role: Art direction, visual & sound design, writing, animation.

Smithsonian Journeys

Our friends at the Smithsonian Institute asked us to come up with cover concepts for their new travel magazine called Journeys that will "contain beautifully written, engrossing reportage for travelers or would be travelers seeking the historical and cultural back story on the places they visit."

Since Journeys is one of 4 new quarterly magazines, we pitched a system that would be scalable to each of these publications and beyond. We wanted each of these publications to feel unique, but still part of a robust and branded portfolio of magazines. We pitched the use of color to identify each quarterly. Then, we tried a number of cover architectures that would work with whatever type of content the Smithsonian editors wanted to use.

Role: Creative Direction, Design.

Daily Digest

Daily digest was pitched as another way to build habit and trust with National Geographic’s audience. A highly curated daily feed of visual trinkets and curious reads that goes directly to a reader's inbox and points to an ipad/iphone app. Each issue shows the range of topics that National Geographic has to offer in a focused and thoughtful way. And hopefully becomes fodder for interesting cocktail-party conversation.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction, Design, UX

The Marshall Project

When Managing Editor, Gabriel Dance, joined former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller at The Marshall Project, it was clear that the new publication would contribute something special to the journalism community. They asked us to help solve the UX and design of the new site, a thrilling opportunity, and an absolute yes. The Marshall Project is a non-profit, single-topic, digital journalism publication dedicated to high-quality coverage about the US criminal justice system.

Our common goals were simple: to create a design system that emphasized their high-quality content and made for a great reading experience with easy discovery of more stories. We developed a story feed system that supported their specific mix of content and added a few distinctive flourishes, features and interactions. We worked to develop smart design solutions that visually paid homage to the time period of their namesake, Thurgood Marshall, but still felt modern and updated.

The project was the perfect mix of things we love at morel: design + mission-driven journalism + brilliant clients with a shared passion for making smart and beautiful products.

Go to the site.

Role: Creative Direction, Design, UX, Project Management

Voyager

“In the late summer and early fall of 1977, twin spacecraft called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 sailed into space, bound for the far reaches of the planets. Like the ancient mariners, they would navigate a vast ocean, the solar system, in a pathbreaking bid to explire the mysterious outer planets.”

Morel pitched, produced and project managed the content, design, sound and development of the interactive experience about the stories behind the Voyager missions.

The Serengeti Lion

Photographer Nick Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson spent two years in the field, documenting the everyday lives of big cats. When they came back with the footage, we were given the opportunity to create an immersive web experience that was truly a safari complete with video, images, audio and text. We affectionally referred to the project as the lions lava lamp -- the final product was simply a collection of moments that made the viewer feel like one of the pride.

Described by Fast Company as a "leonine wormhole," the average time spent on site was 15 minutes.

Role: Creative Direction, Curation, UX

Awards: Webby for Best Use of Video or Still Image, SPD for Best Digital Feature (Gold), POYi Feature Multimedia Story (Award of Excellence), POYi Documentary Project of the Year (Judges' Special Recognition), FWA Website of the Day, Creative Review Best in Book

Showtime

Worked with in-house developers and VP of Creative Crystal Hall on the digital rebrand for Sho.com as well as their entry into the tablet and mobile market with Showtime Anytime.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction, Design, UX

Awards: Promax/BDA

The Globe and Mail

Worked with the Globe and Mail to launch an extensive re-design project that established style coverage as one of their brand pillars. The framework juxtaposed beautiful visuals with readerly columns to appeal to our audience of stylish women who think critically about fashion, beauty and the like. This included a weekly style section, quarterly magazine and premium tablet app.

Role: Strategy, Art Direction, Design

Awards: NMA for Beauty Story (Gold), NMA for Still Life Story (Finalist), NMA for Art Direction for a Single Issue (Finalist)

PROOF

National Geographic is known for its photography but there was nowhere in their digital space that highlighted their people and projects and their own voice. We wanted to bring the perspective of their highly esteemed photographers and photo editors to the forefront, giving readers a sneak peek behind the curtain.

In the process of pitching, designing and building the site, we created a series called Artifacts that helped people get to know photographers through their personal items.

Awards: SPD Design award, Webby nomination for Best Use of Photography

National Geographic Magazine

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor and the second President of the National Geographic Society once wrote: "The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.”

We were brought on to help create a new highly dynamic digital experience for National Geographic Magazine. The brand is known for visual storytelling, we wanted to build something that would show readers that rather than tell them. Bigger pictures was the first simple step along with integrated stories that had multimedia capability. A key differentiator of the society is their archive so we wanted to have the ability to not only access 125 years worth of content but also mix and match that content with present-day articles into editorially-themed or celebrity-curated collections. This feature has earned the project the nickname: “The Living Archive.”

A big goal for us was once we brought a reader in we wanted them to go further down the rabbit hole. Jump in and get lost....

The Laird Co.

Laird is a renaissance man who quit his job as a wine cellar designer to start his own design company, specializing in entertaining products.

The boar's head as the symbol of his company for two reasons: in celtic mythology, it represents courage and strength; however, in heraldry, a boar's head symbolizes hospitality. This combination spoke to both Laird's stoic nature and the type of products he designs.

Role: Branding, Creative Direction, Design

NBC Universal

NBC Universal had a simple request: They wanted to make it easy for the press to find assets on their media village site and understand the breadth of what they did. Working with frog design, we streamlined their information architecture and introduced a bright, clean design that made navigation easier and content more discoverable. However, beyond just an asset management site, we added reference material to make the site a go-to destination for information about their people, shows, studios and parks.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction

Found

Found is a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives. Started in 2013 to honor our 125th anniversary, the blog showcases photographs that reveal cultures and moments from our past. We purposely brought the feed to Tumblr to tap into it's younger, retro-loving audience. What's old is new again.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction

Awards: Webby's People's Choice award for the best use of photography

Publications: Time.com, The Verge, Wired, Need Supply, Reddit,

Dare to Wear Love

25 designers, 1 cause. Toronto Fashion Week brought together an elite group of fashion designers to use their powers for good. We created a mark that could scale and evolve with the group as the years went by. For the first kickoff show we designed the show programs, pins, invites and runway environmental elements.

Role: Branding, Art Direction, Design

Sunday Stills

Sunday Stills is a bi-weekly digest of the best visual journalism from across the National Geographic universe.

It is an attempt to bring a few minutes of wonder to the weekend.

Role: Strategy, Design, Curation

Showtime Retention IDs

How do you get people who already subscribe to Showtime keep their subscriptions and renew again. Instead of standard price messaging we wanted to appeal to viewer's emotional side, remind people of why they watch Showtime to begin with: the complex characters and strange moments. Worked with Showtime Creative Director Christina Black and we highlighted every show.

Role: Strategy, Art Direction, Design

The Love Collection

The Love Collection was pitched as a way to celebrate Valentine's Day from a National-Geographic point of view. We surfaced new and old stories that celebrate love in it's many forms. Mating habits of the wildebeests anyone?

We included the option to "send as valentine," so readers could send their favorite story as a love note.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction, Design, Curation

Alexia Foundation

Alexia Foundation gives grants to photographers who highlight the social change that needs to happen in the world. With that in mind we worked with them to redesign their logo and website. Ultimately we wanted to give them a simple framework for the powerful imagery and a tagline that boldly put their mission upfront and center: Stories that drive change.

Role: Strategy, Design

Next Star Promo

A promo for the top six contestants on YTV's The Next Star.

Role: Art Direction, Production design

House of Lies

Worked with Showtime's VP of Creative Crystal Hall to conceptualize a character-driven digital promotional play for their series House of Lies. The show features complex personalities where not everything is as it seems. The idea was to play off of each character's hidden flaw to create scenes that reveal something about them when you scrolled 360 degrees around.

Role: Strategy, Creative Direction, Art Direction

Penny Black Media

Penny Black Media is dedicated to acquiring quality independent films for distribution to inflight entertainment companies. The Queen's bust was the main element on the original penny black stamp. Its distinctive nature provided both a memorable logo mark for the company and a representation of the rare, quality films it sources.

The American Nile

The American Nile is a personal essay about one man's fight to save the Colorado River. The structure of the site is meant to evoke a meandering river and a blend of historical and modern imagery were used to illustrate how the nature of the river changed over time.

Role: Creative Direction, Design, UX

The Explorers Project

The Explorers Project is a web series by National Geographic that gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of artists, adventurers, researchers and educators who are charting new territory in their fields. Morel developed an opening sequence system that gives readers an explorer-eye-view of each subject.